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September is Arthritis
Awareness Month in Canada. As part of this, I'm doing a series of posts about initiatives by
different organizations. The common theme of these will be dealing with the
topic of working when you live with arthritis. Earlier this month in Making It Work, I wrote about the
Arthritis Research Centre of Canada's study of a self-management program to
help people with arthritis stay employed or become employed again. Last week,
in Fit for Work, I wrote about The Arthritis Society’s work to help employers
develop guidelines and recommendations to accommodate employees with arthritis.
Both of these programs are works in development that will lead to better
conditions for those of us who live with one of the 100 different kinds of
arthritis. But what might those conditions look like? As I've shared briefly a few times, Show Us Your Hands! has
spent a significant portion of this year re-examining how the Directors’
inflammatory arthritis affects how we work and …

The term brave or courageous is often applied to those of
us who live with a disability and equally often, you'll hear me take issue with
these bouts of admiration. And that's usually because these labels are stuck on
us not because we did something particularly brave, but because we got on with
life. Instead of sitting in rocking in a corner, we went to school or
got a job or went out with friends for dinner or drinks or did any other of a
host of actions associated with a normal life. Except because there's a
disability involved, all of a sudden this is brave. I remain steadfast in my position that getting up in the
morning isn't particularly courageous and that bravery is about doing something
scary when you have a choice to not. Living, as opposed to not, is just
what happens. Sure, when you have a disability there are often more obstacles
in your way, but does that mean that the label slapped on someone with a
disability should more accurately be skillful? Brave is…

"'So many live with pain, many more than you can imagine. A
billion and a half of us all over the world are intimately entwined with
pain and what comes with it … Looking in the dictionary, I see a
definition of pain as a distressing sensation, as physical suffering.
But is this so? Is this sensation just one thing, just distress, just
suffering? Is it singular or, as with so many other aspects of our
world, mutable and multiple, ever-changing? If we turn the prism,
looking upon pain through each facet of the glittering crystal, what
might we see?'

That is a quote from the beginning of my new book 7 Facets: A Meditation on Pain. It's a short e-book that dives into the depths of pain and looks at it from different perspectives.

September is Arthritis
Awareness Month in Canada. As part of this, I'm doing a series of posts about initiatives by
different organizations. The common theme of these will be dealing with the
topic of working when you live with arthritis. Living with arthritis — whether osteo or inflammatory —
can be an all-consuming situation. Everything you do is marked by your disease
and sometimes, it can give you a bit of blinders. You spend so much time
focusing on making your life work that it can be hard to think in broad
strokes. Here are some of those larger facts: Over 4.6 million Canadians live with arthritis. The annual economic cost of arthritis in Canada
is $33 billion. In a recent study, fully one third of respondents indicated
they stop working because of arthritis. Makes it very real, doesn't it? The study I mentioned above
was commissioned by The Arthritis Society and further analyzed by the Arthritis Community Research and Evaluation Unit
(ACREU), which found the following: Two t…

Pain is a funny thing. Not just to live with (in which case
it's not always very funny), but in terms of the myths and the silence surrounding
it. Talking about pain is uncomfortable, especially for those who don't have
it. Pain is hard to understand. You can't measure it, it's difficult to
describe and it's near impossible to make others comprehend what it feels like
to be in pain if they've never experienced it themselves. There’s a gap — you
may even say, a chasm — between those of us who have chronic pain and those who
don't. We need to start talking about pain with each other, to bridge that gap
and create a better understanding. To that end, meet my new baby

7 Facets: A Meditation on Pain is just that — a meditative exploration
of the concept of pain, what it is like to live with it, its qualities, roles,
and impact. It's been in the works for a while, something I've noodled with
whenever I needed a break from writing nonfiction. Written as a po…

I often look at my copy of Our Hands Can! and every time, it
makes me smile and feel stronger. Every time I see the Show Us Your Hands! community poster in my rheumatologist's office, it makes me smile and feel part
of a community. I want more people to have a chance to feel that way. About a month ago, I told you that our big project at Show Us Your Hands! this year is to find a way to mass produce our wonderful photo
book Our Hands Can! and posters so they can be more affordable than print on
demand allows. And that means raising funds, so we can make a big order of both
the book and the posters. Each of the Directors of Show Us Your Hands! is doing
fundraisers with what they've got and what I’ve got is a book.

After I got Regan a new left motor last week, The Boy and I took her out for a run to make sure there wasn't going to be any more shenanigans (like abruptly stopping in the middle of the street. Again). It was a beautiful late summer day with not a cloud in the sky and as it headed toward sunset, we went down to Sugar Beach.

We got there just in time to see the ducks starting to tuck themselves in for the night.

A bit further down by the water's edge, I looked across towards the gap between the shore and the islands and wondering if it were the flame of the sun that had stripped bare these trees. (more likely this)

Everyone were headed home after a beautiful day

When the wake of the boat hit the dock, it created a beautiful counterwave going back out again

This little one was late getting home to go to bed

and these little ones made me understand how brilliantly nature camouflages. At dusk, they are almost invisible in the sand

I took August off from my job as Community Leader for
HealthCentral.com's RA site and a few other things. This cut my workload in
half and I discovered something revolutionary. I work too hard. Now, before you experience ocular whiplash from rolling your
eyes too hard — because this factoid has been in the obvious to everyone who
knows me for some time — let me explain. You start doing something, then you add a little something
else, a few hours more over here and gradually, it becomes a very large hill of
stuff. But you don't notice, because the increase has been incremental, every
task sneaking in quietly and entirely doable. And because it has moved slowly,
you don't notice how bad it was until you stop. It’s like the story that claims
if you put a live frog in water and very gradually heat it up, the frog won't
jump out because it won't notice that the water’s starting to boil. I was that frog. Taking a month off from being in hot water brought home how
close to boi…

September is Arthritis
Awareness Month in Canada. As part of this, I'm doing a series of posts about initiatives by
different organizations. The common theme of these will be dealing with the
topic of working when you live with arthritis.The Arthritis Research Center of Canada is a very cool nonprofit
organization. For one, they’re the creators of the banner, marking and
Arthritis Awareness Month in Canada.
They're asking that you use this banner on your Facebook page, blog or anywhere
else to help raise awareness throughout September.

Last week, I talked to Pam
Rogers, Research Coordinator with the ARC, about an exciting new study called
Making It Work. But first, a bit of background… Created in the year 2000, the
ARC’s mission is to perform research on all aspects of arthritis. The research is consumer-driven,
focusing on quality of life issues, care outcomes and more. The ARC has a
Consumer Advisory Board of individuals who all live with different forms of
arthritis. All res…

Some time ago, I played around with Zazzle for some custom-made products and liked it a lot. The interface is wonderfully easy, making interesting products a snap. I spent part of my vacation time in August making some new stuff.

Looking for inspiration? In addition to the Still Standing poster still in the shop, I've made a couple of postcards for you or someone you care about

Your Life with RA Mug by TheSeatedViewFind other Your life with rheumatoid arthritis Mugs at zazzle.comThe great thing about Zazzle is that they allow you to make products customizable by your customers. I clicked a certain button and that means you don't have to stick with the basic white mug, but can choose from a varie…

August got off to an excellent start with a visit from my sister-friend AB and her family. AB and I have known each other since Grade 1, so they arrived just in time for she and I to celebrate our 44th anniversary. We have big plans for six years from now…

We spent a wonderful four days hanging out, noodling around the neighbourhood and eating good food. in other words, the perfect visit. As is my wont, I did all of that with my camera in hand. When it comes to photography, I follow the adage that you take a lot of shots to get a few good ones. During this visit, I was surrounded by extremely photogenic people, so I got a lot of good ones. Herewith a small sampling.

AB at Sugar Beach

Introducing...

Bjarke, AB's husband

Camilla, their oldest, now attending university in Scotland

Christoffer aka Chris, recently home for a year as an exchange student in Utah

Janne/TinkMama came in with the kids

Remember five years ago? Here's the "arms full of Tinks," 2013 version